Social media large TikTok is getting ready to close down its app in the US this Sunday – the day that laws signed by President Joe Biden final yr banning the app takes impact.
There’s a slim likelihood this dramatic improvement may not occur if the US Supreme Courtroom accepts a final minute authorized argument from TikTok’s Chinese language proprietor, ByteDance, that the ban is unconstitutional – or if ByteDance divests its US operations.
However the 170 million customers of TikTok within the US aren’t taking any possibilities. Many self-described “TikTok refugees” have begun to flee to different social media websites, mocking the alleged safety issues on TikTok within the course of. “Goodbye to my Chinese language spy” has turn out to be a brand new TikTok pattern.
The most well-liked different that has emerged is the Chinese language social media app Xiaohongshu (often called RedNote in English). On January 13, the app surged to primary within the US Apple App Retailer, attracting greater than 700,000 new customers.
This mass digital migration of social media customers marks a brand new section within the ongoing digital chilly struggle between the US and China. However there are lots of questions on whether or not RedNote – or another different platform – might be a viable, long-term refuge for US TikTok customers if the ban goes forward.
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What’s RedNote?
Owned by Shanghai-based Xingyin Data Know-how and established in 2013, RedNote is a Chinese language-language way of life, social networking and e-commerce platform. It has a hybrid fashion of Instagram-meets-Pinterest and roughly 300 million month-to-month lively customers – nearly all of whom are in China.
RedNote shops its customers’ private knowledge in China, in compliance with China’s knowledge safety and cybersecurity legal guidelines and different regulatory insurance policies.
However RedNote isn’t the one different platform customers are migrating to. One other is Lemon8, additionally owned by ByteDance, which payments itself as a “way of life group”. First launched in Japan in 2020, it had the second prime spot within the Apple App Retailer – after RedNote – earlier this week. The app permits current TikTok customers emigrate their account handles and knowledge.
Like TikTok, Lemon8 shops knowledge of customers exterior China, together with within the US and Singapore. Nonetheless, if the US authorities does ban TikTok it may simply use the identical rationale to ban Lemon8.
Different native US-based different platforms, equivalent to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, should not seen as excellent choices by many customers. It’s because they’re much less creator-friendly and lack a powerful sense of group.
Many see RedNote as the perfect different given its comparable content material fashion and algorithms to TikTok and community-driven enchantment. Extra importantly, the platform is past the management of the US authorities and can’t be straight banned.
On the time of writing, the hashtag “TikTok refugee” had garnered about 250 million views and over 5.5 million feedback on RedNote. Some US customers satirically defined their transfer to the platform out of spite:
because the US authorities is nervous about our private knowledge being taken by China, let’s simply hand it straight over to the Chinese language authorities. Are you going to remove my cellular?
A ‘Western awakening motion’
Chinese language customers of RedNote are enthusiastically embracing TikTok refugees from the US.
For instance, they’re producing tutorial movies to show new customers the way to navigate the app. This hospitality is summed up by one widespread remark from a Chinese language consumer on the platform who mentioned: “mates who come over from TikTok, I wish to say, you aren’t refugees, you might be courageous explorers.”
The brand new migration to RedNote has additionally intensified nationwide delight of Chinese language web customers.
They vividly seek advice from the migration as a “Western awakening motion”, which permits US residents to open their eyes to see the world exterior the centre of the west.
This phrase was coined in reference to the “self-strengthening motion” in China within the late nineteenth century – a reform effort aimed toward modernising China by adopting Western applied sciences, data and values.
The surprising migration has seen some RedNote-related shares surge by as a lot as 20% earlier this week.
Individuals-to-people diplomacy
The optimistic interactions between American and Chinese language web customers assist promote the Communist Celebration of China’s thought of “people-to-people diplomacy”. This concept is finest summed up by Chinese language President Xi Jinping, who in July 2024 mentioned
the hope of the China-US relationship lies within the folks, its basis is within the two societies, its future is determined by the youth, and its vitality comes from exchanges at subnational ranges.
Nonetheless, RedNote may not be a viable, long-term refuge for US TikTok customers.
Their sudden migration to RedNote might be extra like a flash mob protest towards the TikTok ban. It is probably not straightforward for them to get used to a really completely different digital ecosystem – and decide to completely reside on the Chinese language app.
RedNote has already posted a job advert to urgently recruit content material moderators who perceive English to deal with the dramatic development of English-speaking customers.
It’s additionally value nothing that the migration to RedNote remains to be very small, and solely a fraction of the 170 million folks within the US who use TikTok.
The US authorities additionally has the authority to stress Apple to take away RedNote from the US App Retailer if it thinks the migration poses a nationwide safety risk.
No matter whether or not this occurs, the mass migration of TikTok refugees to RedNote – even whether it is short-term – exhibits the US’s regulation of digital applied sciences, pushed by geopolitical competitors, has considerably fractured the worldwide web. Thankfully, we’ve witnessed the spirit of optimism and humanitarianism amongst US and Chinese language web customers amid the stress of the digital chilly struggle.
- Jian Xu, Affiliate Professor in Communication, Deakin College
This text is republished from The Dialog underneath a Inventive Commons license. Learn the unique article.
